Sail the Ocean Blue

Another of the narratives

we are too eager

to jettison

is the achievement

of a man

who refused

to let a little accident

get in the way

of history.

In 1492

Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

So the rhyme always went,

not about Vikings

or the Chinese,

which is not to say

the Vikings

or the Chinese

didn't make the journey too,

and earlier,

but that they didn't change

the course

of history.

Columbus did that.